The comments here are in reference to article below on Patch website...
More articles are also available in the Free Venice Beachhead and The Argonaut newspapers of last week.
" The article [below] was pointed out verbally to a big Venice residential group who met at the Venice Neighborhood Council on 8/16/2011. Comment about the Boardwalk was made to elicit more interested responses, questions and discussion.
Activism is urgently needed, especially before more "catastrophes' occur – while it’s coming with the lack of accountability, transparency, or enforcement of a LA City ordinance –meant to regulate or eliminate the obviously-commercial-vendors with the ‘flea’ effect.
And enforcement is also needed to control the threatening bullies who daily pretend to 'save spaces' on Venice Boardwalk sidewalk and who act like extortion racquets who reign and misuse City Property on the Boardwalk. – which could still now a free-from-rent set-up for actual ARTISTS- to display their art publicly and to access some walking-by customers…instead the area being just an easy cheap access to sell cheap purchased-resold [mostly ‘made in China’] mdse.
Please come to the next month's VNC meeting to voice your views there,. Or go elsewhere, to include your part in any PUBLIC DISCUSSION in any decision-making that will be done by LA City Council or their affiliated lobbying groups.
Neglect will insure that Venice - as an image of what was in past days a decent paradise or was a tourist 'attraction' that will continue to fall away, or to deteriorate more , or be quickly & totally destroyed. That will open the way for some un-transparent elite gentrification that may be already planned.
And guess what ? Venice will be just another repeat of for rich only folks - taking of what was PUBLIC spaces for their own “ONLY” exclusive use.
Why ? Because deterioration & neglect allow for usurpation and privatization. And that comes with loss of public access to what was once " beautiful Venice Beach....." or however it was remembered before …. but now only in past memories.
(C) wowveniceisactive 2011
article here :
http://venice.patch.com/articles/draft-ordinance-for-boardwalk-vending-would-prohibit-sale-of-jewelry-other-handmade-crafts#comments